After the Prom we headed up along the coast of Victoria as we were headed to the Barry Way, a stretch of gravel road which runs along the Snowy River toward Jindabyne and Australias tallest mountain, Mount Kosiosko.
First we stopped at Paynesville, a coastal town on the Gippsland Lakes (larger than Sydney Harbour and great for boaties) to visit a few Land Rover people we had been chatting to for years on Instagram, Nic and Jess. If you follow the @roving_tracks Instagram you would have seen a reel of these cars. Sadly I didn't take any photos there apart from this big black swan checking out the Defender. They are huge birds that the locals sometimes feed bread so they do come right up to people, curious.
We stayed one night in Bruthen, a lovely recreation ground caravan park with a camp kitchen that had a herb garden you could help yourself to. Being this time of year they also had tons of roma tomatoes and purple basil so I made a delicious tomato based sauce for gnocchi with loads of basil on top - delicious.
I love our kitchen - it's simple, but there's tons of room to chop up and prep and cook, and I don't have to store all the pots and pans inside as they go in the slideout. We often use the bench for a table, our chairs on either side.
After that we drove up the Barry Way - beautiful hills and views of distant mountains, with big farms running cows mainly. We had to stop to give way to a koala who dragged his legs behind him... We aren't sure whether that's a side effect of clamydia which decimates the koala population or perhaps a broken pelvis at some point but he seemed healthy enough. I always feel such joy seeing wildlife, with a smattering of sadness as there should be more.
We stopped by an old ruined schoolhouse which was pretty cool. There's plenty of old hits in the area used for all kinds of things. Apparently the guy had 13 children so he had to something with them. I can't even imagine being in there with wind and snow coming through the cracks. Surely they had hessian bags tacked to the inside at least?
It was quite wild on one section, single lane with hairpin bends and big drop offs... Not for the faint hearted. It meant you couldn't see what was coming and had to use UHF 40 to let people know were coming through as there also weren't many passing places. It was proper stunning. Hard to capture a photo though!
Out the other side of the crazy road and we were alongside the famous Snowy River. It's an area known for horse riding, deer hunting and wilderness adventure. Fires and grazing have destroyed a lot of the original forests and the wildlife isn't as prominent as the more protected Prom, but still we saw koalas, kangaroos and the usual wombat road kill.
We made camp at Pinch River which feeds into the Snowy. It's the beginning of a horse camp trail that leads into the bush, but there was absolutely no one around so we had an incredibly peaceful night. Sleeping by a stream always makes for a good sleep.
It's a good camp - - there's no one around and it's right by a stream. For about the second time since we had it, we set up the hammock. We both really need a rest so I lie on my yoga mat and read and nap. Just heaven.
I made paneer and veggie curry with yoghurt flatbreads, which are amazing for camping as you only need flour, baking soda and yoghurt. I sprinkled them with some harissa powder and garlic powder and salt and they were amazing. I really like camp cooking - I don't need an oven, or a 12v bloody air fryer. Just a couple of pans and a heat source like a fire or our spirit stove.
I stayed up by the fire reading til about 9 - a cool speculative fiction about the fall of America and descent into civil war and how terrorists are made. Perfect holiday reading. On this trip I read about four books on Mum's Kindle account too - she's got a good selection of cli fi and speculative fiction which I enjoy, probably because I was raised on it.
Jamie took some photos of the sky with his Google Pixel 8a as it has this cool night sky function - how amazing. We talked about how many satellites were in the night sky and how much it's changed since we were kids, particularly for me who grew up camping in the bush and looking at the stars - a far cry from London. What a shame the sky of our ancestors has changed so much.
It does make me sad that one man had enough money to make this happen and no one cares because they can take Starlink into the bush and watch Netflix instead of the fire and the stars. Maybe I'm being cynical. Maybe those things still have the draw that they always have. But within a few days we'll be at a free camp and there will be people playing loud music at night and I know they're not looking at the stars, just their navels, because they sure can't see past themselves into the infinite fucking universe.
With Love,
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